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Granville Matheson
I am an academic data scientist with a background in neuroscience. Of the various types of data scientist, I am a generalist, but with a focus on statistics. My work has made international news and been cited in policy1, I have been involved in developing consensus guidelines for study reporting in my field to ensure replicable outcomes2 and software that I developed for pharmacokinetic modelling3 is currently in use in numerous institutions across the world for the analysis of complex data. I am passionate about learning new things, and enjoy the challenge of presenting complex results in a compelling way to audiences with different backgrounds.
I am currently looking for a position that allows me to work with and develop tools for understanding complex data to derive useful insights.
Education
PhD, Medical Science
Stockholm, Sweden
Karolinska Institutet
2018 - 2014
- Thesis: Reliability, Replicability and Reproducibility in PET Imaging
- Working with PET imaging of the dopamine system in psychosis and proneness to developing psychosis, as well as methods development.
MSc, Cognitive Neuroscience
Utrecht, The Netherlands
Universiteit Utrecht
2013 - 2010
- Cognitive Neuroscience Track
BA Hons, Psychology
Johannesburg, South Africa
University of Witwatersrand
2009
- Thesis: Investigating the Nature of the Recruitment of the Inferior Frontal Gyrus in Musical Syntax Processing
BSc, Psychology, Applied Chemistry
Johannesburg, South Africa
University of Witwatersrand
2008 - 2006
- Other courses: Chemistry I & II, Major Physics I, Major Pure Mathematics I, Research Design and Analysis
Research Experience
Postdoctoral Researcher
Columbia University
Molecular Imaging / Biostatistics
2022 - 2020
- The plan is to work on developing Bayesian methods for performing pharmacokinetic modelling using a multilevel framework, using Markov Chain Monte Carlo.
- Preliminary results demonstrate large increases in accuracy and power.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Karolinska Institutet
Cervenka Lab, PET Group
2020 - 2018
- Finishing up remaining projects, training others in image analysis and kinetic modelling tools, and developing tools for reproducibility and documentation.
Research Assistant
Karolinska Institutet
Cervenka Lab, PET Group
2014 - 2013
- Working on analysing the Karolinska Database to examine seasonal and diurnal effects of protein expression
Research Intern
Karolinska Institutet
Cervenka Lab, PET Group
2012
- Responsible for image processing and analysis of PET imaging data for the Karolinska Behavioural PET Database
Research Intern
Universiteit Utrecht
Ramakers Group, Rudolf Magnus Institute
2011 - 2010
- Worked with single-cell electrophysiology to investigate the dynamics of ion channel caused by morphine
Research Assistant
University of Witwatersrand
Department of Psychology
2010
- Assisted in a literature seach for the neuroscientific bases for trichotillomania
Teaching Experience
I am passionate about teaching, and in addition to direct teaching experience, I have held numerous seminars to teach colleagues how to approach statistical problems, and to share knowledge about various new tools that may be helpful.
Positron emission tomography imaging of the CNS
Karolinska Institutet
Stockholm, Sweden
2019 - 2015
- Lecturer and TA training students in biannual course, teaching about pharmacokinetic modelling and statistical analysis
Research Design and Analysis
University of Witwatersrand
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009
- Tutor for research design and statistics
Selected Data Science Writing
I have a blog4 about data science and visualisation where I publish mostly side projects. Upcoming posts include Bayesian multilevel nonlinear modelling, city commute time visualisations, and a tool for identifying especially valuable skills to learn based on historical job postings.
Pharmacokinetic Modelling of PET Data in R using kinfitr. Part 2: Basics and Iteration5
granvillematheson.com
N/A
2020
- Part 2 of a four part series describing my kinetic modelling R package. Here I cover basic usage of the package. I cover bias-variance tradeoffs and other relevant considerations during modelling.
Using Readability Formulas to Assess Linguistic Complexity of TED Talks using koRpus6
granvillematheson.com
N/A
2019
- Using text data, I analysed readability scores of all TED talks over the years, to examine the relationship between linguistic complexity and engagement.
- Also stepped through the always-complicated task of cleaning the text data
My Physiological Response to my PhD Defence7
granvillematheson.com
N/A
2018
- I recorded my physiological data in the months leading up to my PhD defence, and analysed it here, using data visualisation to tell the story of my sleep changes, and heart rate, both before and during the defence.
- I also wrote an R package for extracting this data from the Withings API. I have been contacted by others from around the world who are using my software.
Making a Reminder Bot for Automating Meeting Organisation using R and Google Sheets8
granvillematheson.com
N/A
2018
- Demonstrated my reminderbot system which has effectively automated the organisation for two sets of meetings continuously for the past 4 years.
- Setting up a productionised system, running several times each week on a Raspberry Pi
The Weather in Stockholm, Inside and Out, and the Curious Case of Summer 20189
granvillematheson.com
N/A
2018
- Analyzing meteorological data from open data and private data, examining the effects of global warming, and examining how extreme 2018 really was
Selected Press
Brain PET research at critical ‘crossroads’ - must move toward collaboration to advance10
N/A
N/A
2020
- Our paper imploring the field make greater use of collaborative research and data sharing, and sharing lessons learned in our experiences, received some press attention.
It’s not just you: science papers are getting harder to read11
N/A
N/A
2017
- Our readability article, for which I was shared first author, was covered in international news, both mainstream and scientific, and even cited in UK policy documents
Selected Publications
Guidelines for the content and format of PET brain data in publications and archives: A consensus paper
Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism
N/A
2020
- Authored with all the influential figures in our field
- This article establishes a consensus for how to report on studies within our field, for which I was asked to contribute my expertise.
Kinfitr - an open source tool for reproducible PET modelling: validation and evaluation of test-retest reliability
bioRxiv
N/A
2020
- Authored with Jonathan Tjerkaski, Simon Cervenka and Lars Farde
- I supervised this project, in which we evaluated the performance of my kinetic modelling R package against the established commercial tool used in our field.
The readability of scientific texts is decreasing over time
Elife
N/A
2017
- Authored with Pontus Plavén-Sigray, Björn Schiffler and William Hedley Thompson
- This project resulted from our gathering as PhD students, without any supervisors, for a collaborative data science project. In this, we learnt version control with GitHub, collaborative coding among other things.
We need to talk about reliability: making better use of test-retest studies for study design and interpretation
PeerJ
N/A
2015 - 2019
- Sole author publication
- I present a new statistical method for estimating study feasibility with limited, and not directly representative data.
Awards
Janssen Fellowship in Translational Neuroscience
New York, USA
Janssen Foundation
2022 - 2020
Psykiatrifonden Award
Stockholm, Sweden
Psykiatrifonden
2020 - 2019
Karolinska Travel Grant
Stockholm, Sweden
Karolinska Institutet
2019 - 2018
Young Investigator Award
Boston, USA
NeuroReceptor Mapping Conference
2016
ISCBFM Young Investigator Travel Bursary
Vancouver, Canada
Brain & BrainPET Conference
2015
Psychology Honours Award
Johannesburg, South Africa
University of Witwatersrand
2009
Postgraduate Merit Scholarship
Johannesburg, South Africa
University of Witwatersrand
2009
McGraw-Hill Award
Johannesburg, South Africa
University of Witwatersrand
2008
Merck Gold Medal for Interdisciplinary Excellence
Johannesburg, South Africa
University of Witwatersrand
2008
Links
- https://www.altmetric.com/details/18028335
- https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0271678X20905433
- https://github.com/mathesong/kinfitr
- www.granvillematheson.com
- https://www.granvillematheson.com/post/pharmacokinetic-modelling-of-pet-data-in-r-using-kinfitr-part-2-basics-and-iteration/
- https://www.granvillematheson.com/post/tedreadability/
- https://www.granvillematheson.com/post/self-portrait/
- https://www.granvillematheson.com/post/reminder-bot/
- https://www.granvillematheson.com/post/20180821-stockholmweather/
- https://www.healthimaging.com/topics/molecular-imaging/brain-pet-crossroads-collaboration-advance
- https://www.nature.com/news/it-s-not-just-you-science-papers-are-getting-harder-to-read-1.21751